Biko Met I Must Say, He Nontsikelelo (Ntsiki) Mashalaba

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Biko Met I Must Say, He Nontsikelelo (Ntsiki) Mashalaba LOVE AND MARRIAGE In Durban in early 1970, Biko met I must say, he Nontsikelelo (Ntsiki) Mashalaba Steve Biko Foundation was very politically who came from Umthatha in the Transkei. She was pursuing involved then as her nursing training at King Edward Hospital while Biko was president of SASO. a medical student at the I remember we University of Natal. used to make appointments and if he does come he says, “Take me to the station – I’ve Daily Dispatch got a meeting in Johannesburg tomorrow”. So I happened to know him that way, and somehow I fell for him. Ntsiki Biko Daily Dispatch During his years at Ntsiki and Steve university in Natal, Steve had two sons together, became very close to his eldest Nkosinathi (left) and sister, Bukelwa, who was a student Samora (right) pictured nurse at King Edward Hospital. here with Bandi. Though Bukelwa was homesick In all Biko had four and wanted to return to the Eastern children — Nkosinathi, Cape, she expresses concern Samora, Hlumelo about leaving Steve in Natal and Motlatsi. in this letter to her mother in1967: He used to say to his friends, “Meet my lady ... she is the actual embodiment of blackness - black is beautiful”. Ntsiki Biko Daily Dispatch AN ATTITUDE OF MIND, A WAY OF LIFE SASO spread like wildfire through the black campuses. It was not long before the organisation became the most formidable political force on black campuses across the country and beyond. SASO encouraged black students to see themselves as black before they saw themselves as students. SASO saw itself Harry Nengwekhulu was the SRC president at as part of the black the University of the North liberation movement (Turfloop) during the late before it saw itself as a Bailey’s African History Archive 1960s. A founder member of both SASO and the Black student organisation. Consciousness Movement Harry Nengwekhulu (BCM), he was one of Bikos closest friends and comrades. Strinivasa "Strini" We emphasised Moodley, another pioneer the fact that students of the BCM in South Africa, were a part of the oppressed was a journalist and community – their parents playwright and a close Independent Newspapers, Durban worked in factories, comrade and friend of Biko. As one of the accused in the were domestic workers. We SASO/BPC trial, he encouraged students to go into served six years on the communities and help with Robben Island. building extra classrooms and clinics. Strini Moodley The first SASO General Barney Pityanas Students Council, held in July 1970 relationship with Biko in Durban elected Barney Pityana as dates back to Lovedale College president to succeed Biko. As and the University Christian Bailey’s African History Archive publications director, Biko became Movement which Pityana headed during the late 1960s. Also a founder editor of the SASO Newsletter, where member of SASO and BCM, together he wrote prolifically under the with Harry Nengkwekhulu he pseudonym, Frank Talk. led the BCM in exile. One of the Durban conference resolutions stated Themba Sono that emancipation depended was ousted as SASO Bailey’s African History Archive entirely on the role black people President in 1972 because he supported close co-operation themselves were prepared to play. between SASO and some This doctrine of self-emancipation homeland leaders. SASO was defined as Black Consciousness advocated a radical approach which was an attitude of towards the homeland leaders, mind, a way of life. calling them puppets of the Pretoria regime. One of the key objectives of SASO was to address what they termed black peoples inferiority complex. As Frank Talk, Biko wrote the following inspired by Frantz Fanons Black Skins, White Masks: It becomes clear that as long as blacks are suffering from an inferiority complex - a result of 300 years of deliberate oppression, denigration and derision - they will become useless co-architects of a normal society. Hence what is necessary as a prelude to anything else that may come is a very strong grassroots build-up of black consciousness such that blacks can learn to assert themselves and their rightful claim. Frank Talk – Black Souls in White Skins? SASO Newsletter, August 1970 This and all subsequent editions of the SASO newsletter were banned in July 1976. In October, SASO was declared an illegal organisation under the Internal Security Act. Photos: Unisa Archives 1972-1976 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE BLACK CONSCIOUSNESS MOVEMENT The Black Consciousness Movement consisted of a group of intellectuals who, until 1976, concentrated on ideas rather than mass mobilisation. They wanted to conscientise black South Africans, to mobilise them psychologically. Steve Biko and his comrades argued that oppression was as much psychological as political. They believed that it was vital for black South Africans to break the pattern of subservience and to develop their own sense of self-worth. Black people had to become self-reliant and self-confident and draw on indigenous cultural and political traditions. When you say, “Black is beautiful,” you are saying, “Man you are okay as you are, begin to look upon yourself as a human being.” Biko, I write what I like Photo: Bailey’s African History Archive The first step therefore is to make the black man come into himself; to pump back life into his empty shell; to infuse him with a pride and dignity, to remind him of his complicity in the crime of allowing himself to be misused and therefore letting evil reign supreme in the country of his birth. This is what we mean by an inward-looking process. This is the definition of Black Consciousness. Biko, I write what I like SASO defined Black Consciousness as follows: ¥ Black Consciousness is an attitude of mind, a way of life. ¥ The basic tenet of Black Consciousness is that the black man must reject all value systems that seek to make him a foreigner in the country of his birth and reduce his basic humanity. ¥ The black man must build up his own value systems, see himself as self-defined and not as defined by others. ¥ The concept of Black Consciousness implies the awareness of black people of the power they wield as a group, both economically and politically and hence group cohesion and solidarity are important facets of Black Consciousness. ¥ Black Consciousness will always be enhanced by the totality of involvement of the oppressed people, hence the message of Black Consciousness has to be spread to reach all sections of the black community. SASO Newsletter, September 1971 A SPIRIT OF SELF-RELIANCE SASO and the Black People s Convention argued that blacks should realise that they alone can determine their own destiny. Community development, community involvement and a spirit of self-reliance became the cornerstones of Black Consciousness. Winnifred Kgware (extreme left) was UWC RIM Mayibuye Archives elected president of BPC at its first National Congress in December 1972. Addressing the congress is Mamphela Ramphele. After Biko was expelled from medical school, he worked for the In June 1972, Biko was Black Community Programmes (BCP) Steve Biko Foundation expelled from the University which included education, health of Natal Medical School. and welfare projects. At this time, he played a central role in forming the Black Peoples Convention (BPC), an umbrella body of black Zanempilo Community consciousness organisations. Health Centre, in the rural The BPC was formally launched community of Zinyoka outside Benjamin Pogrund in Pietermaritzburg in July 1972 King Williams Town, was a very to fill the political vacuum successful health project. A created by the banning of the brainchild of Biko, the clinic ANC and the PAC more than helped to improve health a decade earlier. conditions in the surrounding eastern Cape villages. BPC aims to UCT Libraries unite the One of the black people of South driving forces Africa with a view to behind the success of Zanempilo was Dr mobilising the Mamphela Ramphele masses towards their (right), a close comrade struggle for liberation and intimate friend of Biko. In 1978, she gave and emancipation birth to Bikos son, from both Hlumelo, a name that psychological and means the shoot that grows from a dead physical oppression. BPC Constitution tree trunk. A CULTURAL RENAISSANCE “Who can speak the heart of the black man, who can sing the rhythm of the black man, who can paint the suffering of the black man and who can act the pain, the desires, the loves and hates of the black experience?” Strini Moodley, SASO Newsletter, May/June 1972 After the imprisonment, bannings and departure for Omar Badsha Between 1957 and 1966, exile of African intellectuals the list of black artists who left and artists in the 1960s, the South Africa included Es kia Black Consciousness Mphahlele, Lewis Nkosi, Arthur Movement contributed to Maimane, Todd Matshikiza, Bessie a cultural renaissance in Head, Cosmo Pieterse, Can all art forms in Themba, Nat Nakasa, Mazisi the 1970s. Kunene, Bloke Modisane, Arthur Nortje, Keorapetse Kgositsile, Dennis Brutus, Alex La Guma, Miriam Makeba and Hugh Masekela. Many never returned. There is no doubt that the pulse of the arts in the National English Literary Museum 1970s was provided by the performing arts, especially theatre. Theatre emanated from the unions, the Black Consciousness Movement, the collaborative efforts of Athol Fugard, John Kani and Winston Ntshona, Gibson Kente, Barney Simon (above left) and “Today the theatre a multitude of university and of revolt has established its community groups. Bailey’s African History Archive validity. The theatre picks Requiem from Brother X, out and accuses the with Maynard Peters and Vic Mafungo at University of perpetrators of evil. It Natal TECON Theatre Group. denounces the oppressor, it rejects war and it The Afro-Jazz music advocates revolution.” of Malombo in the early SASO Newsletter, June 1971 Bailey’s African History Archive 1970s is considered by some as the first original jazz music to come out of South Africa.
Recommended publications
  • Article the South African Nation
    The African e-Journals Project has digitized full text of articles of eleven social science and humanities journals. This item is from the digital archive maintained by Michigan State University Library. Find more at: http://digital.lib.msu.edu/projects/africanjournals/ Available through a partnership with Scroll down to read the article. Article The South African nation Ivor Chipkin In 1996 the South African Labour Bulletin made a startling comparison. It suggested that the movement of trade-unions to invest members' contributions in 'investment companies' resembled models for Afrikaner economic empowerment. InparticularNail (New Africa InvestmentLimited), one of the flagships of Black Economic Empowerment, was compared to Rembrandt, one of the flagships of Afrikaner economic power (SALB 1996). What was being juxtaposed here was African and Afrikaner nationalism. Indeed, it was hinted that they were somehow, even if modestly, similar. What was important was the principle of the comparison: that they could be compared at all! Since then, even if it is not commonplace, it is at least not unusual to hear journalists and others draw similarities between them (see, for example, Heribert Adam in the Weekly Mail & Guardian, April 9,1998). Today it is even possible to hear members of government or the ANC hold Afrikaner nationalism up as a model for Black Economic Empowerment (see Deputy Minister of Finance, MB Mpahlwa 2001). In this vein African and Afrikaner nationalism are beginning to receive comparative treatment in the academic literature as well. Christoph Marx in a recent article discusses continuities between the cultural nationalist ideas of Afrikaner nationalism and those of current day Africanism.
    [Show full text]
  • Professor Barney Pityana
    citationHonorary Fellow of COL Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika − this is South Africa’s banning orders and incarceration by the national anthem and translated from Xhosa apartheid Government, he found the time means “God bless Africa”. This opening line and discipline required of a distance learner of the national anthem encapsulates the spirit to complete his BA in 1975 and BProc in 1976 and service of a visionary leader, theologian, at the University of South Africa (UNISA). lawyer, activist and custodian of human rights − Professor Nyameko Barney Pityana. In September 1977, Barney’s former roommate, and friend, Steve Biko died in detention while Some might say that Professor Pityana’s service in the custody of the South African Security to his country was genetically predestined. His Police. In the darkness of national despair, paternal grandfather, a celebrated Xhosa Barney, with his wife and daughter, took on poet, authored seven stanzas of Nkosi Sikelel’ the new challenge of living in exile in the iAfrika. However, we at the Commonwealth United Kingdom. He read Theology and Law of Learning have witnessed Barney’s career as at Kings College, London and Ripon College a testimony of his deep-seated conviction and Cuddesdon in Oxfordshire and was ordained abiding love for education, South Africa and Priest in the Anglican Church. The Reverend her people. Pityana continued his life’s work in human rights as Director of the World Council of Professor Pityana is a distance learner, Churches’ Programme to Combat Racism in respected intellectual and scholar. He has first- Geneva. In 1993, he returned to South Africa hand experience of the meaning of “learning and became the first Chairperson of the South through adversity”.
    [Show full text]
  • South Africa and the African Renaissance
    South Africa and the African Renaissance PETER VALE* AND SIPHO MASEKO On May , immediately prior to the adoption of South Africa’s new con- stitution,Thabo Mbeki, Nelson Mandela’s chosen successor, opened his address to the country’s Constitutional Assembly with the words ‘I am an African!’. In an inclusionary speech, symptomatic of post-apartheid South Africa, Mbeki drew strands of the country’s many histories together. His words evoked great emotion within the assembly chamber, and later throughout the country: across the political spectrum, South Africans strongly associated themselves with the spirit of reconciliation and outreach caught in his words. South Africa’s reunification with the rest of the continent had been a significant sub-narrative within the processes which led to negotiation over the ending of apartheid. That South Africa would become part of the African community was, of course, beyond doubt; what was at issue was both the sequence of events by which this would happen and the conditionalities attached to its happening.The continent’s enthusiasm for the peace process in South Africa was initially uneven: the Organization of African Unity (OAU) summit in June decided to retain sanctions against South Africa although the Nigerian leader, General Ibrahim Babingida, expressed an interest in meet- ing South Africa’s then President, F.W.de Klerk, if such an occasion ‘would help bring about majority rule.’ The political prize attached to uniting South Africa with the rest of the continent explains why South Africa’s outgoing minority government, despite energetic and expensive diplomatic effort, was unable to deliver its own version of South Africa in Africa.
    [Show full text]
  • Lessons Drawn from the Apartheid Litigation
    21 Towards Making Blood Money Visible: Lessons Drawn from the Apartheid Litigation INGRID GUBBAY* I INTRODUCTION UCH HAS BEEN written and said about the conceptual challenges raised in the two cases comprising the Apartheid litigation1 (‘Re Apartheid’). Of the 100 Mcases or so run under the Alien Tort Claims Act2 (ATCA) since its reinvigora- tion in 1980, Re Apartheid is unique in that it has spotlighted the high level of ‘collabora- tion/integration between non South African sectors of the business community and the State, in extending, maintaining, and profiteering from the Apartheid regime’.3 First filed under the ATCA in the Southern District Court in 2002, the South African plaintiffs have sought to publicly interrogate banks and other major corporations for their key role in allegedly supporting the crimes against humanity committed by the regime during the period of its operation between 1948 until the election of Nelson Mandela in 1994. The case narrative, told first through the reports to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa4 (TRC), and later in the US courts, establishes unequivocally that the financial and operational support provided by certain corporations maintained * The author is the European head of human rights and environmental law at Hausfeld & Co LLP, based in London. Her role in the litigation is to assist on areas of international law, and liaise with members of the Khulumani group. She worked in South Africa taking depositions from the named plaintiffs in the Khulumani case. The author would like to thank the Khulumani litigation team in Re Apartheid, for their contribution to this chapter.
    [Show full text]
  • PRENEGOTIATION Ln SOUTH AFRICA (1985 -1993) a PHASEOLOGICAL ANALYSIS of the TRANSITIONAL NEGOTIATIONS
    PRENEGOTIATION lN SOUTH AFRICA (1985 -1993) A PHASEOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF THE TRANSITIONAL NEGOTIATIONS BOTHA W. KRUGER Thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts at the University of Stellenbosch. Supervisor: ProfPierre du Toit March 1998 Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za DECLARATION I, the undersigned, hereby declare that the work contained in this thesis is my own original work and that I have not previously in its entirety or in part submitted it at any university for a degree. Signature: Date: The fmancial assistance of the Centre for Science Development (HSRC, South Africa) towards this research is hereby acknowledged. Opinions expressed and conclusions arrived at, are those of the author and are not necessarily to be attributed to the Centre for Science Development. Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za OPSOMMING Die opvatting bestaan dat die Suid-Afrikaanse oorgangsonderhandelinge geinisieer is deur gebeurtenisse tydens 1990. Hierdie stuC.:ie betwis so 'n opvatting en argumenteer dat 'n noodsaaklike tydperk van informele onderhandeling voor formele kontak bestaan het. Gedurende die voorafgaande tydperk, wat bekend staan as vooronderhandeling, het lede van die Nasionale Party regering en die African National Congress (ANC) gepoog om kommunikasiekanale daar te stel en sodoende die moontlikheid van 'n onderhandelde skikking te ondersoek. Deur van 'n fase-benadering tot onderhandeling gebruik te maak, analiseer hierdie studie die oorgangstydperk met die doel om die struktuur en funksies van Suid-Afrikaanse vooronderhandelinge te bepaal. Die volgende drie onderhandelingsfases word onderskei: onderhande/ing oor onderhandeling, voorlopige onderhande/ing, en substantiewe onderhandeling. Beide fases een en twee word beskou as deel van vooronderhandeling.
    [Show full text]
  • Israeli Infiltration in South Africa
    Israeli infiltration in South Africa Na’eem Jeenah Executive Director, Afro-Middle East Centre January 2010 Al Jazeera Centre for Studies Tel: +974-4930181 Fax: +974-4831346 [email protected] www.aljazeera.net/studies Introduction The year 1948 witnessed both the establishment of the state of Israel and the establishment of the ‘Republic of South Africa’, ruled from then until 1994 by the Nationalist Party, using the ideology of Apartheid. In 1953, South Africa’s Prime Minister, Danie Malan, became the first head of government in the world to pay an official visit to Israel. This fact underlines the relationship that was later to develop between the South African Apartheid state and Israel, a relationship that would endure into South Africa’s post-Apartheid era – albeit in different forms. The relationship between South Africa and Israel developed because it was mutually beneficial to both. As negotiations took place in South Africa between the liberation movements and the Apartheid state, there was expectation from many quarters that the relationship would be severed with the ushering in of a democratic government in South Africa, controlled by liberation organisations which had close relationships with the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO). Instead, while some areas of that relationship were downgraded, others were strengthened. Early Israel-Apartheid South Africa relations It seems surprising that the South African Nationalist Party had, over the period of a few years developed such close ties with Israel when its luminaries had, prior to 1948, been extremely Judeophobic and had supported Nazi Germany during the Second World War and offered to lead a coup in South Africa against the British on behalf of Nazi Germany.
    [Show full text]
  • Bram Fischer and the Meaning of Integrity Stephen Ellman
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by University of North Carolina School of Law NORTH CAROLINA JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL LAW AND COMMERCIAL REGULATION Volume 26 | Number 3 Article 5 Summer 2001 To Live Outside the Law You Must Be Honest: Bram Fischer and the Meaning of Integrity Stephen Ellman Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarship.law.unc.edu/ncilj Recommended Citation Stephen Ellman, To Live Outside the Law You Must Be Honest: Bram Fischer and the Meaning of Integrity, 26 N.C. J. Int'l L. & Com. Reg. 767 (2000). Available at: http://scholarship.law.unc.edu/ncilj/vol26/iss3/5 This Comments is brought to you for free and open access by Carolina Law Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in North Carolina Journal of International Law and Commercial Regulation by an authorized editor of Carolina Law Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To Live Outside the Law You Must Be Honest: Bram Fischer and the Meaning of Integrity Cover Page Footnote International Law; Commercial Law; Law This comments is available in North Carolina Journal of International Law and Commercial Regulation: http://scholarship.law.unc.edu/ncilj/vol26/iss3/5 To Live Outside the Law You Must Be Honest: Bram Fischer and the Meaning of Integrity* Stephen Ellmann** Brain Fischer could "charm the birds out of the trees."' He was beloved by many, respected by his colleagues at the bar and even by political enemies.2 He was an expert on gold law and water rights, represented Sir Ernest Oppenheimer, the most prominent capitalist in the land, and was appointed a King's Counsel by the National Party government, which was simultaneously shaping the system of apartheid.' He was also a Communist, who died under sentence of life imprisonment.
    [Show full text]
  • For Southern Africa SHIPPING ADDRESS: POSTAL ADDRESS: Clo HARVARD EPWORTH CHURCH P
    International Defense and Aid Fund for Southern Africa SHIPPING ADDRESS: POSTAL ADDRESS: clo HARVARD EPWORTH CHURCH P. 0. Box 17 1555 MASSACHUSETfS AYE. CAMBRIDGE. MA 02138 CAMBRIDGE. MA 02138 TEL (617) 491-8343 BOARD OF TRUSTEES A LETTER FROM DONALD WOODS Willard Johnson, President Margaret Burnham Kenneth N. Carstens John B. Coburn Dear Friend, Jerry Dunfey Richard A. Falk You can save a life ~n South Africa. EXECUTIVE DIRECIDR Kenneth N. E:arstens ..:yOtl- e-an-he-l--p -ave-a h-i-l cl adul-t ~rom the herre-I"s- af a South African prison cell. ASSISTANT DIRECIDR Geoffrey B. Wisner You can do this--and much more--by supporting the SPONSORS International Defense and Aid Fund for Southern Africa--IDAF. John C. Bennett Lerone Bennett, Jr. Leonard Bernstein How do I know this? Mary F. Berry Edward W. Brooke I have seen the many ways in which IDAF defends political Robert McAfee Brown prisoners and their families in Southern Africa. Indeed, Shirley Chisholm I myself helped to deliver the vital services it provides. Dorothy Cotton Harvey Cox C. Edward Crowther You can be sure that repression in South Africa will not Ronald V. DeHums end until freedom has been won. That means more brutality Ralph E. Dodge by the South African Police--more interrogations, more torture, Gordon Fairweather more beatings, and even more deaths. Frances T. Farenthold Richard G. Hatcher Dorothy 1. Height IDAF is one of the most effective organizations now Barbara Jordan working to protect those who are imprisoned and brutally Kay Macpherson ill-treated because of their belief in a free South Africa.
    [Show full text]
  • Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa Report: Volume 2
    VOLUME TWO Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa Report The report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was presented to President Nelson Mandela on 29 October 1998. Archbishop Desmond Tutu Ms Hlengiwe Mkhize Chairperson Dr Alex Boraine Mr Dumisa Ntsebeza Vice-Chairperson Ms Mary Burton Dr Wendy Orr Revd Bongani Finca Adv Denzil Potgieter Ms Sisi Khampepe Dr Fazel Randera Mr Richard Lyster Ms Yasmin Sooka Mr Wynand Malan* Ms Glenda Wildschut Dr Khoza Mgojo * Subject to minority position. See volume 5. Chief Executive Officer: Dr Biki Minyuku I CONTENTS Chapter 1 Chapter 6 National Overview .......................................... 1 Special Investigation The Death of President Samora Machel ................................................ 488 Chapter 2 The State outside Special Investigation South Africa (1960-1990).......................... 42 Helderberg Crash ........................................... 497 Special Investigation Chemical and Biological Warfare........ 504 Chapter 3 The State inside South Africa (1960-1990).......................... 165 Special Investigation Appendix: State Security Forces: Directory Secret State Funding................................... 518 of Organisations and Structures........................ 313 Special Investigation Exhumations....................................................... 537 Chapter 4 The Liberation Movements from 1960 to 1990 ..................................................... 325 Special Investigation Appendix: Organisational structures and The Mandela United
    [Show full text]
  • The Power of Heritage to the People
    How history Make the ARTS your BUSINESS becomes heritage Milestones in the national heritage programme The power of heritage to the people New poetry by Keorapetse Kgositsile, Interview with Sonwabile Mancotywa Barbara Schreiner and Frank Meintjies The Work of Art in a Changing Light: focus on Pitika Ntuli Exclusive book excerpt from Robert Sobukwe, in a class of his own ARTivist Magazine by Thami ka Plaatjie Issue 1 Vol. 1 2013 ISSN 2307-6577 01 heritage edition 9 772307 657003 Vusithemba Ndima He lectured at UNISA and joined DACST in 1997. He soon rose to Chief Director of Heritage. He was appointed DDG of Heritage and Archives in 2013 at DAC (Department of editorial Arts and Culture). Adv. Sonwabile Mancotywa He studied Law at the University of Transkei elcome to the Artivist. An artivist according to and was a student activist, became the Wikipedia is a portmanteau word combining youngest MEC in Arts and Culture. He was “art” and “activist”. appointed the first CEO of the National W Heritage Council. In It’s Bigger Than Hip Hop by M.K. Asante. Jr Asante writes that the artivist “merges commitment to freedom and Thami Ka Plaatjie justice with the pen, the lens, the brush, the voice, the body He is a political activist and leader, an and the imagination. The artivist knows that to make an academic, a historian and a writer. He is a observation is to have an obligation.” former history lecturer and registrar at Vista University. He was deputy chairperson of the SABC Board. He heads the Pan African In the South African context this also means that we cannot Foundation.
    [Show full text]
  • Inkululeko * Freedom Newsleher of the Michigan Anti-Apartheid Coordinating Council No.1
    March -April aa Inkululeko * Freedom NewsleHer of the Michigan Anti-Apartheid Coordinating Council No.1 .~ =-===_~- i1 = r 4::a5"I'''' rra-.~ ~ ""'<:t==:=..__~ j Apartheid'Regime J ~ Launches Nevv Attacks! ~ Political Activities cJ I}_Civic ~ Ldx>r Groups Bamed .. On February 24th, the apartheid state This October all race groups will issued orders forbidding 17 anti-racist be able to vote in "their" res­ organizations "from carrying out or pective municipal elections. By performing any activity or acts obstructing political campaigns by whatsoever". Groups affected range the liberation_movement either with­ from the nation's largest anti­ in or in opposition to this round apartheid coalition, the multi-racial of elections the racist state hopes United Democratic Front (UDF) to the to foster an appearance of legiti­ smaller but influential Black Conscious­ macy and fake mass support for the ness Azanian Peoples Organization collaborators and the Botha reqimes' (AZAPO) and its National Forum Committee bogus reform stance. Messages' alliance. The Conqress of South African supporting the freedom movement can Trade Unions (COSATU) was ordered to be sent to: cease all its political activities COSATU and confine itself to narrow collective P.O. Box 1019 bargaining issues. Johannesburg 2000 South Africa Most press reports stressed the ru­ Telex: 486519 linq Nationalist Party took these steps to appear tough on "law and Weekly Mail order" for two whites I only by­ p.0. Box 260425 elections. These elections were Excom 2023 subsequently lost to the even more South. Africa extreme racist Conservative Party. Telex: 486379 The ruling party·s main intent how­ ever is to block resistence to those The New Nation forces in the Black community willing P.O.
    [Show full text]
  • Botho/Ubuntu : Perspectives of Black Consciousness and Black Theology Ramathate TH Dolam University of South Africa, South Afri
    The Asian Conference on Arts & Humanities 2013 Official Conference Proceedings Osaka, Japan Botho/Ubuntu : Perspectives of Black Consciousness and Black Theology Ramathate TH Dolam University of South Africa, South Africa 0415 The Asian Conference on Arts & Humanities 2013 Official Conference Proceedings 2013 Abstract Botho/ubuntu is a philosophy that is as old as humanity itself. In South Africa, it was a philosophy and a way of life of blacks. It was an African cultural trait that rallied individuals to become communal in outlook and thereby to look out for each other. Although botho or ubuntu concept became popularised only after the dawn of democracy in South Africa, the concept itself has been lived out by Africans for over a millennia. Colonialism, slavery and apartheid introduced materialism and individualism that denigrated the black identity and dignity. The Black Consciousness philosophy and Black Theology worked hand in hand since the middle of the nine- teen sixties to restore the human dignity of black people in South Africa. Key words: Botho/Ubuntu, Black Consciousness, Black Theology, religion, culture. iafor The International Academic Forum www.iafor.org 532 The Asian Conference on Arts & Humanities 2013 Official Conference Proceedings Osaka, Japan 1. INTRODUCTION The contributions of Black Consciousness (BC) and Black Theology (BT) in the promotion and protection of botho/ubuntu values and principles are discussed in this article. The arrival of white people in South Africa has resulted in black people being subjected to historical injustices, cultural domination, religious vilification et cetera. BC and BT played an important role in identifying and analysing the problems that plagued blacks as a group in South Africa among the youth of the nineteen sixties that resulted in the unbanning of political organisations, release of political prisoners, the return of exiles and ultimately the inception of democracy.
    [Show full text]